The Gate of Shadows

After being expelled from the soul cairn, Shade and I found ourselves in another free fall, dropping through the deep blue sky. Instead of letting us go by the ground, it triggered us to plummet towards our destination.

When it told me to fly, I never thought it would want me to. All I could do was reach for Shade. I touched her momentarily as my fingers barely grazed her fur before being shoved away by a gust of air right out of her reach.

“Lily!” she screamed, struggling to find her balance.

Unlike me, though, she was fine with hitting the ground. I fought to relax so I could see the ground below. With only a few seconds before I splattered, I cast an emergency spell.

"Supernatet!" I muttered just before hitting the ground, creating a cloud of dust that rose where I fell.

My body trembled, levitating inches away from the floor. A second later, I realized I would’ve been a decorative piece on the earth. Shade wasted little time finding me. However, screams and yelling erupted from all sides.

We had landed in what appeared to be a warzone. Unable to see anything, I could only try to find my way out of the dust cloud. Before I could make it out, Shade yanked me towards her when an unknown body fell next to us.

Unable to see clearly, I reached down to check if they were alive, but instead of warmth, their body was colder than ice itself. It was unnatural; a body would still be warm for a few minutes after expiration. It triggered me to yelp when it suddenly twitched, alerting me it was about to get up.

Necromancy?! You knew?!

Shade's tail whisked me away wholly, placing me onto her back before bolting out of there and into the chaos outside the dust cloud. Once there, we found ourselves in a forest clearing, much like where I spent the night with Fenris, but much more prominent.

This is where they chose to conduct the festival. So that means Fenris must be here!

This clearing was closer to Silverant than the ones they used for the blood moon, but we were about two hours away at most by foot. A Lycan could quickly get there in thirty minutes, which meant reinforcements were surely on the way.

The barrier that was supposed to protect the festival was nowhere to be seen, which was good since we would’ve hit it otherwise on the way down. However, what was more concerning was the Lycans going nuts on each other, followed by what appeared to be corpses walking around.

There was chaos everywhere my eyes landed.

Can I find you in this mess?!

No matter where I planted my gaze, all I saw was unknown. Shade flicked away one corpse that came towards us with her tail, jumping into another location to keep me safe. My bracelet shone brightly, allowing me to see its shimmering light through the sleeves of my dress.

Its glow increased as my desire to find Fenris grew. The cadavers were like ants overrunning a nest someone had mistakenly stepped on. She only landed momentarily before jumping again to another place when a crazed Lycan launched at us.

Lily, something is wrong with these wolves! Shade huffed, struggling to find a place safe for me.

There was no time for anything but defense. However, it wasn’t long before I saw something that distressed me. Ezra was holding down Owen, who appeared to be under the same influence as the crazed wolves.

They were surrounded by other Lycans, who protected them from the incoming corpses, surrounded them.

“Get a hold of yourself, Owen!” The grey wolf shouted to his friend, only to respond with a snarl.

The more I saw, the more my anger boiled within me.

How can anything like this happen? Wasn’t the festival supposed to be isolated from everyone? How did this…

In the distance, by a cottage, a pack of wolf mothers were protecting their children who cried in fear. Kira was among them, holding onto a broomstick as a defense for the kids. When I spotted children in distress, it affected me more than I thought, reminding me of the old days when a young Fenris reached out to me.

None of these people deserve... no more! If I must be wicked, that's precisely what I’ll be to those unfortunate enough to be my enemies.

Stepping off Shade, I took off my second inhibitor bracelet, unleashing magic energy into my surroundings as my body gave off a blue hue while purple in my core. From what I read once when I studied under Stella, necromancy was one of the darkest forms of magic.

It reanimated corpses but didn’t give them a soul, leaving the body much like a puppeteer controlling a puppet. So, they only had the casters' desires in mind. Some of the fallen Lycans were reanimated, and others had fallen there.

This necromancer has no shame! Using their victims to...

I felt no remorse for what I would do next—unleash my magical energy into the surrounding environment. I cast a spell that witches would use during plagues, and bodies were piling up. The only way to cleanse the dead and stop a necromancer was…

"O sacra flamma, haec cadavera nos pellite, quae ante mor- os illos iunge pestis.” I whispered as Shade used one of her nails to slice into my palm, allowing my blood to soak the ground below.

Oh, holy flame, rid us of these corpses that plague us before more dead join them.

In an instant, a blue hue came from me, setting ablaze all the surrounding corpses. With every step I took, all the corpses within a certain radius burned into ashes. The flames that burst forth from them glowed with an otherworldly blue hue, giving off a sense of mystique.

From the faint purple shimmer coming from my core, Fenris's essence was still within me, probably the only thing keeping me stable for the past few hours. My body screamed for me to stop what I was doing, but there was no turning back.

I wouldn’t allow this injustice to continue unabated, not while I could do something about it. Alijah wouldn’t be right about us any longer while I was around. In the end, all this just brought more hate into the world.

Nothing would change if things continued their current course, and if I had to be immoral to keep the innocent safe, then so be it.

Wicked, I will be.

Whispers exploded in my mind, resonating with me as pulses of energy erupted from me, expanding the original radius of my spell. Every corpse within my visible view was burning before dropping to the floor. Even Lycan cadavers burned at my command. However, the flame didn’t harm anyone with a beating heart.

It quickly extinguished once it turned the body into cinders. Once the corpses vanished, only Lycans and event staffers remained in plain sight. However, they swiftly fixed all eyes on me—the new unknown. Most of the staffers were humans without powers, if not Lycans themselves and all of them appeared startled by me.

They thought I was behind this, without a doubt. Ryker isolated the wolves, thinking it was safer that way, but he was wrong. He made the enemy's attack easier by herding them in one place.

There were little to no Cerberus officers on the festival grounds.

How foolish…

They probably wondered who would be crazy enough to attack a Lycan-infested party, but then again, witches were desperate to end them— like when the fall of Silverant happened. The higher-ups had gotten cozy since there were no signs of my coven.

I knew better; I always did, yet they always ignored me

They don’t deserve salvation!

To oblivion to all of them!

The whispers echoed within me.

No! The only ones who deserve death are those who prey on the weak!

They wouldn’t overlook me any longer, though.

I’m no longer the child from that day.

From the claw marks on every piece of furniture, the Lycans tore apart every part of the festivities, and it happened before the corpses even made their way there. There was a clean line where they had invaded.

Somehow, whoever was attacking took down the barrier from the inside while the cadavers went through it, creating even more chaos. They only kept out the living, which should’ve been good enough.

Whoever took the barrier down must be an insider in Cerberus, but who?

It was easy to think it was a human officer who had probably gotten away when I arrived.

Clever grandmother…

I had no doubt she was the one behind it. A plan like this would’ve been easy to predict if they knew who they were dealing with. However, what was more worrisome were the corpses themselves.

You can get a pass since a necromancer is in their ranks. Something rare enough to overlook, even so…

Death magic was forbidden and required vast power to enact on this scale. All the books I read mentioned how volatile and complex it was to control.

Is it Edna again or someone else?

That woman was proving herself to be more than a simple witch.

From Mel’s spell… to this… Just who are you?

Everyone was frozen when the corpses that survived my spell withdrew into the forest's depths, where their caster resided. Drinking glasses were everywhere on the floor, leaving me wondering if all this began with a toast gone wrong.

Remembering the memory I had relived a few weeks ago, Stella mentioned Edna's wolfsbane.

Had some of it been placed into the drinks for the Lycans?

Since not all wolves were out of control, whoever drank it first was affected by it. Even though my body felt weak, I ignored every warning it threw at me as I took a few steps toward Owen and Ezra.

They were the only two I recognized among the Lycans surrounding me. Shade climbed onto my shoulder in her usual size to look less frightening before I stopped before them. All the Lycans fighting the corpses watched me, unable to tell if I was a foe or friend.

I wore no Cerberus insignia, so they didn’t know who I was, while the others were too busy holding their mad companions. Most of the crazed Lycans that weren't contained ran out of the festival and into the town, looking for easier prey, which would delay the incoming reinforcement.

This is a problem for those in Cerberus, and since it's daytime, the vampires will have a hard time, too. You really do think of everything, don't you, grandmother? If I hadn't come here, these wolves would've...

There were injuries everywhere I gazed, including the staffers who trembled, hiding behind anything that could shield them. I could tell some of the wolves who stared at me knew about me, though most others didn’t know what to expect.

The difference between civilians and officers was apparent in their eyes, although they all had read the news that spread around thanks to the leaks.

Am I enemy or foe? They probably thought.

Ezra's gaze met mine, allowing me to see how dilated his pupils were with his ears and tail tucked. That was when someone yelled at me from the side—a welcoming voice, but not the one I wanted to hear. However, fates were colliding, and nothing could stop this anymore.